My 2nd great-grandmother is a Ronna, born in Italy. The Italian cognome map suggests it's a fairly unusual Italian surname. I have reason to believe the family is from Potenza, but it's possible that's just wrong.

For those of you who do Potenza research, do you know of any towns there where this name appears? Picerno looked like a good possibility because of some other names in the collateral lines of the Ronnas (Casale, Romeo), but the name is spelled Renna. I'm open to the possibility that the name was changed, that perhaps it was Renna or Rona or some variation, but I looked through Picerno extensively and couldn't find any birth or marriage records that conclusively point to my family.

Edit to Add: It is also quite possible that all three surnames might not belong to the same town. A great grandfather from Grumento Nova married my great grandmother from a neighbouring town, Sarconi, then from there various ones married spouses from other towns like Viggiano, Moliterno, Montemurro, Spinoso etc.

I did look at Potenza, in addition to Picerno, because it occurred to me that when relatives listed "Potenza," they may have meant the town, not the province. I didn't find anything too promising, but I'll go back since the names all appear there (in some form).

So, I figure I need to offer a little genealogy here. My great-grandparents were Domenico Gerardi and Filomena Casale. Domenico's parents were Vito Gerardi (born 1877 in Avigliano, Potenza) and Concetta Ronna (born about 1881 in Italy).

Domenico Gerardi's wife, Filomena Casale, may have been a cousin of his. That has been the family rumor long before I discovered the records showing the Casale surname on both sides. Filomena Casale's father was Michele Casale (born about 1860 in Italy) and his parents were Angelo Casale and Angela Romeo.

My suspicion has been that they were all from the same town, but I don't know.

1888 NY passenger manifest for Rosa Casale, daughter Concetta, and son Francesco, lines 56-58. Concetta Ronna had a brother Frank, and her brother Frank married Vito Gerardi's sister, Beatrice Gerardi. That's how I've been able to narrow down this record as being the likeliest one. http://imgur.com/a/t2iTl

I haven't been able to definitively prove which immigration record is Michele Casale's (Filomena's father, son of Angelo and Angela Romeo), but I know he must have immigrated before 1890 because he had a daughter Angelina born in the US in 1890, and he was married in 1892. So, that narrows it down a bit. http://imgur.com/a/Ads6C

AngelaGrace56 wrote:
Edit to Add: It is also quite possible that all three surnames might not belong to the same town. A great grandfather from Grumento Nova married my great grandmother from a neighbouring town, Sarconi, then from there various ones married spouses from other towns like Viggiano, Moliterno, Montemurro, Spinoso etc.

Angela

That is my fear/concern, yes, that they were maybe from the same area, but not the same town.

Just to update - a Casale DNA match finally returned my email. She didn't have a lot of information, but I was able to follow her Casale line easier than mine and ended up in Picerno again, as I thought might be a possibility.

After several days of searching, I found my 2nd great-grandfather's birth record, his sister's, his marriage record, his mother's birth record, and the marriage records of three of his siblings! And then I found my 2nd great-grandmother's birth record, her brother's, and her parents' marriage record - Ato Lanno and Rosa Casale.

As it turns out, the surname appears to be Lanno, not Ronna. I don't know why the name would have been spelled "Ronna" or "Rona" in the US, but it was. Sometimes a trilled "R" can sound like an "L," so that's my operating theory at the moment.

And my roadblock was my own doing - I assumed that all the surnames (Casale, Romeo, Ronna/Lanno) had to be from the same town, but as was suggested here in this thread, Lanno is indeed NOT from Picerno or even Potenza. His birth place was "Ariano" on his marriage record, so I assume that's Ariano in Avellino in Campania.

There were a lot of soap opera discoveries, like my 2nd great-grandfather Michele and his siblings were all born illegitimately with unknown fathers. Michele Casale gave "Romeo" as his mother's surname, but his mother's name was Casale. Romeo is a name in Picerno, so perhaps he just made it up. Perhaps it's the name of his biological father. That's a new mystery to solve. Also, my great-grandparents were indeed cousins - first cousins once removed.

I'm still double and triple checking and working through the genealogical proof method to make sure that I am not getting ahead of myself, but Picerno seems to be it. /relief

Beatrice Gerardi is the sister of my 2nd great-grandfather. The parents were Domenico and Catarina Nole. Beatrice married Frank Ronna.

My 2nd great-grandmother was Concetta Lanno and she had a brother named Francesco born in 1885 in Italy. Her parents were Antonio/Oto Lanno and Rosa Casale.

Romia/Lomio could be Lanno or Ronna. He used Ronna in his life, but based on this marriage record, I think he is indeed the son of Oto Lanno and Rosa Casale. I am not sure why he used Ronna in his life.

This concise historical presentation is intended not as an exhaustive sociological treatise, but as a general introduction for the layman. It is presumed that the reader has already reviewed Italian Heraldry, Nobility & Genealogy. Because of the highly individual nature of genealogical and heral...

In order to provide you with the best online experience we use cookies.